The original Cowboy Bebop anime series will debut on Netflix on October 21st. The show, created by Shinichirō Watanabe, focuses on a band of bounty hunters in 2071, led by former hitman Spike Spiegel. The rest of the team is made up of Faye Valentine, a con artist with amnesia, Jet Black, a former Inter Solar System Police (ISSP) officer, Edward, a 13-year-old hacker, and of course, Ein, the group's pet Corgi. The team chases down criminals, operating from their ship, called Bebop, often getting into serious trouble and confronting all manner of issues from their past and present.
The original anime series ran for 26 episodes before being canceled. Watanabe didn't want to be tied into making the show for years on end, so decided to quit before it got stale. In 2001, Cowboy Bebop: Knockin' On Heaven's Door (or Cowboy Bebop: The Movie in North America) was released as an original movie, but that's the last time the series has been seen in animation. The show and the film were released on Blu-ray and played on various anime networks, such as Adult Swim, which brought in even more fans throughout the years.
In preparation for the release of the new live-action show, Netflix has announced that it is releasing the original Cowboy Bebop anime series on the platform starting on October 21. The live-action show debuts on November 19th, giving fans and non-fans an opportunity to watch the full anime series prior to jumping into the new show. There's been no word yet on whether the 2001 anime film will be available as well, but it appears that the full 26-episode series will be available to watch.
The live-action show stars John Cho as Spike Spiegel, Daniella Pineda as Faye Valentine, and Mustafa Shakir as Jet Black, with Alex Hassell playing the group's nemesis, Vicious. The show will debut the first season with 10 hour-long episodes, which will honor the Cowboy Bebop anime, but also dig deeper into their history and give fans more than just a rehash of the older material, according to showrunner Andre Nemec. Original show creator, Watanabe, is also an associate producer on the live-action series, which should help ease hardcore fans' minds over the accuracy of the series in relation to the anime show.
Cowboy Bebop, the animated series, has long been regarded as one of the best anime shows ever made, and with the hype surrounding the live-action series, this is a good get for Netflix. The platform is already a big hub for anime, so enriching it with the original Cowboy Bebop anime is simply a smart move on all fronts, as it allows all users the ability to watch the whole series or just watch enough to not go into the live-action series blindly. Either way, the long-dormant anime is about to get dusted off, and if the live-action show is a hit, expect Cowboy Bebop to potentially be the next big thing for the streamer.
Source: Netflix